Homemade Cards for friends 5/5: Dream

These cards are a series of cards I've made using elegant pictures I've downloaded from the internet, or from my collection of artists' work around the world.

They combine the techniques of rubber stamping, collage work, rub-on lettering and pointism (a fancy word for dotting ink or paint on your card!)

Title: Dream

Ok, I admit it. I took the lazy way out. I could have illustrated pictures instead of using pictures from my travels and the internet, printing them out and using them as the centre piece of my cards. However I did spend quite a lot of hours on embellishing the cards.

For "Dream", I had dug out from my wrapping paper collection and "Things to Throw Away" box...

1. a few decade-old crepe paper (grey)

2. blue Thai banana paper from Thailand

3. some old darkroom test-strips from Australia (I used to develop black and white photos in my university course)

4. some shiny flat craft beads

5. a dried leaf from ...Canada(?)

6. an old yellow bookmark tassel

7. red Japanese paper (from which I cut a butterfly out)

8. a peacock feather

9. a purple dragonfly clip

10. a Thai handmade paper that has flower petals and leaves on it (card base)

11. a photocopy of a Thai artist's painting of a Buddhist goddess  (the card that had the painting is now buried under some papers at home and I'm not home at the moment)

Short steps to your own handmade card (pixy-style):

1. Start by cutting the card paper to size from the handmade Thai paper (roughly A2 size), folding them into half.

2. Assemble all the elements of bits and pieces on the card surface and rearrange them until your satisfied with the flow and colour of everything.

Note: Sometimes I have more elements and I choose to take them out, especially if I run out of space.

Hint: I like putting broader pieces down first, carefully use liquid UHU glue to paste them, then decorate with little shiny beads.

3. Rub on some letters (e.g. D-r-e-a-m) on the illustration.

4. If you think it's pretty...use a gold gel pen to add gold "dust" on the leaf, picture and around "Dream" and elements. Silver or bronze pens work too. They sell such pens in art shops, usually manufactured in Japan.

5. Using a stamping ink pad of gold and burgundy colours, rub gently against the edges of the card to create an aged look. This works best with a textured paper.